MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013 PICS

This post officially wraps up the MATRIXSYNTH specific coverage for NAMM 2013.  As promised, you'll find the super size pics from all previous posts on Flickr here.  You can check out the individual booth sets here.  The majority of pics have been featured already, however, you'll find the original gigantic pics on Flickr.  Feel free to use and share them, and if you do please mention the site.

I was going to embed a slide show here, but every time I do my mouse disappears, so I'm not going to do that to you.  You can launch the slideshow on Flickr if you like.

Note, that although this is the final MATRIXSYNTH NAMM post, other NAMM posts will continue to go up if they come in.  This year, I took a total of 232 pics and 17 videos (11.26 G of uploading - twice for the pics).  You can find the individual posts here via the MNAMM13 label.  They are in the reverse order each booth was visited, so if you want to get a sense of what it's like walking through NAMM in a single day, scroll down to the first post and move up the list. You'll find my notes on each booth in the individual posts.

The best part of NAMM?  The people.
The worst part of NAMM? There's never enough time.

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: REON Booth Pics & DRIFT BOX Modular Video

Published on Feb 4, 2013 matrixsynth·266 videos

Three videos and pics of the REON DRIFT BOX modular system. Lots of blinky lights. :) The third video and the bottom pics are the best. When I arrived at the booth NAMM was shutting down and Reon was packing up. Fortunately they turned on their systems and gave me a few demos.  Note the infrared controller in the first video.  If you look closely you will see the red sensors between all the lights.  Note the location of the patch bays in each system - one is on the left and one is on the right.  Also note each "module" is essentially an individual DRIFT BOX.  It appears they are mounted in each system with the patch points on the side.  You can find REON's website in Japanese here or Googlish here.  I believe I saw the beatnic.jp Mountain synth at the booth as well, but I missed getting a pic of it.  See the beatnic.jp label below for a couple of videos of it.

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: eowave Booth Pics & Orage Magnetique Video

Published on Feb 4, 2013 matrixsynth·263 videos

Demo of the new Orage Magnetique modular synthesizer by eowave. If you look closely you will see that the individual modules are on one large panel.  The system is compatible with eurorack and other modular systems that support the 1 volt per octave standard.  This is another example of an easy way to get into the modular world by picking up a synth that happens to also be a modular.  eowave said the inspiration for the synth were lunar landscapes and the exploration of sound.

Also featured at the booth were the eowave DOMINO desktop mono synth, eurorack modules and new infrared & touch interfaces.  See the pics below for the individual modules.  In the last image you will see the eowave ribbon controller sitting on top of what looks like a gong.  That's actually a speaker.  Someone apparently mistook it for a gong during the show and hit it displacing the speaker!  Not me BTW.  :)

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: Arturia Booth Pics

Some pics of the Arturia booth. The MiniBrute is still looking good.  Arturia let me know that they have finally passed their production constraints and are now producing them full boar.  There's a pic of the Nocho Perc patch overlay below.  I don't think I noticed the name of it before now. The Origin made an appearance as well as their new SPARKLE and MINILAB.  See the NAMM and Arturia labels below as well as their website linked above for more on each.

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: Waldorf Music Booth

Two pics from the Waldorf booth at this year's NAMM. That was it folks. No sign of the new Pulse 2 which is currently slated for Spring of 2013, or the Waldorf / TempoRubato iPad app. Hopefully we'll see some news at the Musikmesse.

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: Buchla Booth Pics

Some pics from the Buchla booth.  Click on them for the super size shots.   Note the first two are from my Canon Rebel T2i and the rest are from my iPhone 4S as the battery on the Canon ran out.

Featured at the booth were the 200e system and of course the new Buchla Music Easel, The Electric Music Box.  The design of the Music Box is essentially the same as the original, and will actually come with a reprint of the original manual pictured below.  The last image in this post is of Don Buchla, the man himself.

I had a little hands on with the new Easel and lets just say out of every synth I tried at NAMM this year, this is the one that made me feel the most like a little kid in a candy shop.  It brought back that sense of childlike wonder you rarely get when you've become extremely familiar with most forms of synthesis.   For those of you not familiar with the Buchla paradigm, although there is overlap with traditional subtractive synthesis, the approach is different.   Buchla's systems invite you to explore sound in a way that you might not on standard OSC to Mixer to Filter designs.  Instead of attempting to re-create specific and often somewhat predictable sounds,  these systems are more like electronic sound labs.  This might sound silly, and I mentioned it to Don, but his systems remind me of what you might have thought synthesizers were when you were a child or when you were first introduced to synthesis - magical boxes that allow you to morph and explore sound rather than a keyboard that emulates known instruments.

The more you become familiar with the standard building blocks of synthesis (oscillators, filters, envelopes, LFOs) the more predictable it becomes. The focus tends to be more about creating or targeting a specific sound and then playing notes with that sound.  Not so much on a Buchla. Yes you can play tonal music on a Buchla, but for me, and definitely on the Music Easel, the experience was more about exploring the entire system and the manipulation of sound over time.  Yes you can approach other feature rich synths in the same way, but the Buchla just leads you there.   This is why people that love Buchla are willing to shell out more for them. If you are curious about why that is, I encourage you to check out the Buchla website, and of course the Buchla label below to see what others are doing with their systems.  Keep an open mind.  Buchlas are all about synthesis and the manipulation of sound.  They were originally designed for the composers of Musique Concrete.

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: John Bowen Solaris Booth Pics & New Editor

Some pics of the Solaris at the John Bowen Synth Design booth.  See a screenshot of the upcoming software editor below.  This is one powerful synth, and you could argue the most powerful and flexible digital synthesizer to date.   It has a number of unique features not found on other synths including "Rotors" which are special 4-step waveshape sequences which act as oscillators. You can select any four sound sources, cycle through them in a Rotar and create a new complex sound source. Via the John Bowen website: "We all know that an oscillator basically takes a waveshape and cycles it continuously. The more complex the waveshape used, the more interesting the resulting cycles will sound. Now select four sound sources (including the external inputs and all the oscillator types mentioned previously) and play these repeatedly in a looped sequence one after the other. This is what a rotor is and Solaris has two of these as additional sound sources that can then be further mixed, filtered and modulated. Still can't imagine what a rotor sounds like? Check out this example: WeirdRotor1Poly"

The Solaris has four oscillators per voice. Along with standard waveforms, you have the Prophet VS waveforms, and wavetables from Waldorf available. There really is too much to cover in this post. If you haven't already I encourage you to check out John Bowen Synth Design for the full feature set, demos and testimonials.  And of course also see the John Bowen label below.

John gave me a sneak peak at a software editor for the Solaris.  You'll see a screenshot of the Arpeggiator editor below.

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: Carson & Peter Perform at the DSI Booth Video

Uploaded on Feb 4, 2013 matrixsynth·261 videos

Not the best audio in this video but I thought the performance was pretty cool and I wanted to capture it so here it is.  Carson on the Tempest and Peter on the Prophet 12.  You can see the Bob Moog Foundation booth in the background.  See this post for my DSI booth pics.  I opted to put this video up separately as I'm putting my NAMM posts up in the order I visited each booth.  This video was captured on my second visit.

http://www.davesmithinstruments.com

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: Antiquity Music Booth Pics

Some pics of the Antiquity Music booth featuring two versions of the Wheelharp, one with standard flat piano keys and one with circular keys.  Note this is not a synthesizer or electronic instrument. It's a bowed string instrument that you play with keys. "The Wheelharp is a groundbreaking keyboard musical instrument that gives the player the ability to orchestrate a full chromatic scale of sixty-one (61) actual bowed strings at one’s own fingertips, almost like having a real chamber string orchestra at hand."

See the Antiquity Music label below for more posts including video and audio demos.

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: AH Booth - Richard Devine, Snazzy FX, Tiptop...

Richard Devine on Make Noise Modular at the Analogue Haven Booth

Uploaded on Feb 3, 2013 matrixsynth·256 videos - This was the Friday 3PM performance.

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MATRIXSYNTH 2013: Bob Moog Foundation Booth

Marc Doty Presentation at the Bob Moog Foundation Booth

Uploaded on Feb 3, 2013 matrixsynth·256 videos

Bernie Worrell at the Bob Moog Foundation Booth


Two videos at the The Bob Moog Foundation booth. The first is Marc Doty (aka AutomaticGainsay) giving an overview of modular synthesis on Erik Norlander's Moog modular.  I'm not sure how much of the beginning I missed as I dropped by the booth when it was in progress.  The second video is of Bernie Worrell of Parliament-Funkadelic and Talking Heads checking out a Synthetic Sound Labs modified Moog Minimoog synthesizer with SSL's Doug Slocum.   BTW, if you are into Steampunk be sure to check out SSL's modular systems. Note the mini is duo-phonic and has a joystick rather than wheels. The mini is also capable of different triggering modes. You can hear Doug telling Bernie when he sets it to multi-trigger so each note played re-triggers the envelope. Also at the booth was a "MiniWoouf" couch donated by WOOUF! of Barcelona. And of course Bob Moog's daughter Michelle Moog-Koussa was present.  Be sure to click the pics below for the super size shots.

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: Dave Smith Instruments Booth Pics

Pics of the DSI booth at NAMM. The highlight of course was the new Prophet 12.  If you watched some of the previous videos on the Prophet 12, you should have noticed that the messaging has been that the Prophet 12 is essentially the best of the Prophet 08 and the best of the Poly Evolver keyboard (see :52 on in this video).  One thing to consider is that it does not share any of the oscillators of either the Prophet 08 or Poly Evolver keyboard.  The Prophet 08 has analog oscillators with sawtooth, triangle, saw/triangle mix, and pulse waves (with pulse-width modulation), and hard sync.   The Poly Evolver has two analog oscillators and two digital with the original Sequential circuits Prophet VS waveforms.  The Prophet 12, however, has new digital (software) oscillators which include wavetable oscillators.  It's not clear how the wavetable oscillators are implemented.  In PPG and Waldorf based wavetable synthesis each wavetable is essentially an oscillator with 64 waveforms that you can interpolate or step through.  You can pick different wavetables each with 64 waveforms.  On the Prophet 12 I was told that there are three wavetables that you can morph between.  What wasn't clear was how the interpolation between the waveforms works.  It does sound great.

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: Moog Music Booth & Sub Phatty Performance

matrixsynth·252 videos

http://www.moogmusic.com
A quick performance demo of the Moog Sub Phatty by Amos Gaynes.  Let this one evolve.  I think Amos was trying to put me in a trance and it worked.  I could have kept listening forever.  The Sub Phatty sounds great - substantial, massive and raw, and of course Amos rocks.  Below you'll find a ton of pics including the 50th Anniversary Gold Voyager and the Aluminum Voyager.  They both looked pretty incredible in person.  I definitely like the gold one more in person than pics, fingerprints and all.  The white Moogs look very sharp in person as well.  If you scroll down you'll find a little non-Moog surprise.  I asked Amos about it and he said it was from his friend who makes it.  I thought that was pretty cool.

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: Big City Music Booth Pics

Tons of pics for tons of gear represented at the Big City Music booth this year. Pictured to the left are Roger Cordell and Stephi of Big City Music. Unfortunately I forget the name of the gentleman playing the new Mellotron M4000D MINI. I believe it is Markus, but I'm not 100% sure. Check out how slim it is - the Mellotron not the gentleman. Apparently it has the same specs as the model M4000D with a high quality Fatar keyboard that is velocity sensitive, weights only 21 pounds (9.5 kg), and should run $2100 when introduced.

Other new gear highlights at the booth include the Metasonix S-2000 Vacuum-Tube synthesizer (you'll find some details in this post for one that is currently for sale), the F-1 Complex Distortion Pedal, the new KOMA Electronic pedals, and the Jomox Akasha (check out the video here).

Other brands featured include Analogue Systems,  Dewanatron, Dirty Boy Pedals, Cwejman, Critter & Guitari, Vermona, Eowave (who had their own booth this year), and various eurorack manufacturers."

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: Studiologic Sledge Pics

Some pics of the of the Studiologic Sledge with the synth engine by Waldorf.  The stand out for me on the Sledge is the interface.  Everything is big and spread out which invites you to explore it in a way you might not on Waldorf's own Blofeld synth.  Note that although the technology is similar between the two, they are slightly different.  If you haven't watched them yet, see this post for a video overview of the engine, and this one for audio demos from our friends at Sonicstate.

Side note: They had a HUGE banner.  That's it in the background.  One more pic of the top half below.

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: KORG MS20 Mini Pics

The booth was packed, I knew what this was, and I knew it would get plenty of coverage, so I took three quick pics and moved on.  Click them for their full size glory.

The key take away for me was that like the original this does not support the 1 Volt per Octave format of eurorack and other modern modular sythesizers, so if you plan to use this with one, you'll need a convertor like the recently announced Harvestman English Tear.

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: RADIKAL TECHNOLOGIES Booth

This year I paid a quick visit to one of my favorites, Jorg Schaaf of RADIKAL TECHNOLOGIES.  He was also the man behind Quasimidi.  He was showing his ACCELERATOR keyboard with iPad editor and the SPECTRALIS 2, both great sounding synths.   My videos below do not do them justice so be sure to check out the RADIKAL site for proper demos, Jorg's YouTube channel (some great music especially if you like Pink Floyd), or of course the RADIKAL label below. In the first video Jorg was showing me his iPad editor for the ACCELERATOR.  In the second part the drum sound was active so let's just say the effect was not intended. :) I told him they were going to kick him out.  You can hear us both laughing at the end.  The next video is a demo of some of the drum sounds on the SPECTRALIS 2, followed by a demo sequence.  Jorg was going to play a lead on the ACCELERATOR but had a little trouble with the audio.  It happens.  NAMM glitches aside, these are great synths, both in sound quality and feature set.  The ACCELERATOR actually has an accelerometer built in that you can assign to different parameters.  Not sure how often you might use it but it would definitely be a fun thing to try out, especially on unknowing friends. More pics below. Be sure to click them for the super size shots.

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: RADIKAL TECHNOLOGIES ACCELERATOR

matrixsynth·252 videos

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: Studio Electronics at the Noisebug Booth

Uploaded on Jan 30, 2013 matrixsynth·251 videos

At 5:12 you'll see "MIDI overflow" on the back.  Apparently you can chain these for polyphony.

Update: I heard back from Studio Electronics. You should be able to chain up to four of these, after there might be lag. Editing on one will not affect the other, so you would need to dial each up to mach much like SEMs in a two or four voice system. The plus side of this is you can slightly detune and alter the individual voices for potentially more interesting sounds. Think chords where each voice is doing something slightly different.

Studio Electronics debut of four new mono synths at the Noisebug booth.  Marc St. Regis gives us an overview of the new Boomstar 4075 (ARP 2600 filter), the Boomstar 3003 (Roland TB-303 filter, but "sounds more like an SH-101"), the Boomstar SEM (Oberheim SEM filter), and finally the Boomstar 5089 (Minimoog filter).   Audio demos are of the 4075 and 3003.  Although the Boomstars were first announced back on March 2, 2012 here, NAMM was the first time they made a public appearance.  You can find a demo of the 4075 posted on September 30, 2012 here, and one previous NAMM video recently posted by SonicState here.  The product page for the Boomstars is here.   I have to say these do sound great; they are incredibly thick and rich sounding analog synths. As you can see they have a small physical footprint along with substantial feeling knobs and they have quite a few extra features.  Click the pics below for some super size shots.

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: Moon Modular at the Noisebug Booth

Uploaded on Jan 30, 2013 matrixsynth·250 videos

Gert of Moon Modular gives us a demo of their modular system focusing on the 506 Filter Modifier at the Noisebug NAMM Booth.  The brassy lead sound you hear in the background is coming from another booth, but oddly fits.  Moon follows the 5U  synthesizers.com/ Moog modular format.

via Moon Modular: "The M 506 MODIFIER MODULE is a combination of a voltage controlled amplifier connected in series. The vcf is a ladder type lowpass filter featuring switchable slopes (12/18/24 dB/oct) and voltage controllable regeneration. In addition to the manual frequency and resonance dials there are three attenuated control voltage inputs for filter cutoff frequency (bipolar), resonance and amplifier gain. The via bypass switch routes a fixed control voltage to the amplifier to keep it 'open' and ease control while working on a filter patch."

See the Moon Modular website for additional details on the modules pictured below.

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: Pittsburgh Modular at the Noisebug Booth

Uploaded on Jan 29, 2013 matrixsynth·249 videos

My first stop at NAMM was the Noisebug booth starting with Pittsburgh Modular. As I previously posted I was intrigued by their new offerings which presented eurorack modular systems as self contained stand alone synthesizers rather than individual modules.  In my opinion, this format helps break one of the psychological barriers behind getting into modulars.  Rather than starting with an empty case and contemplating what modules to fill it with, you can essentially by a desktop synth, get your hands wet to see if you are comfortable with modulars and then expand from there.  Richard goes into this perspective, why he decided to create these systems and what each is geared for.  Unfortunately they were not patched up for an audio demo at the time.  You'll find details on each in my previous post and of course the Pittsburgh Modular website.  At the booth, pictured below, are the various configurations of the Cell 48, the Cell 90, the Pittsburgh Modular Foundation, and the Foundation with Expander.  Click each for the super size shot.

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